Game Maker 8.1 – Limited Beta Begins

March 25th, 2011 by Philip Gamble | Categories: Game Maker 8, Game Maker Development

A “very limited” beta of Game Maker 8.1 has begun. The beta features a new non-Softwrap registration system alongside a variety of IDE upgrades and bug fixes.

Bugs reported so far have been fixed by Mike at a good pace. Hopefully the “report a bug” toolbar option will remain present after the initial public release so that any issues which remain can be rectified using the new built-in updater.

With a brief glance the room editor looks identical to that present in Game Maker 8, however there are a number of changes. A zoom has been added which can be controlled by buttons above the top of the room or the mouse scroll wheel. Pressing and holding the middle mouse button enables you to pan around the room. These changes have also been added to the image and path editors.

So far the switch to [Ctrl]+[Right] to delete an object from a room (previously just [Right]) has caught me out a few times. The removal of the “import code snippets” option in the script editor has enabled [F2] to replace the old [Ctrl]+[R] to rename resources – something which always annoyed me.

There is no word yet on if or when the beta will be expanded.

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  1. YemSalat
    March 25th, 2011 at 18:13
    Reply | Quote | #1

    It is a non-public beta, right?

  2. Philip
    March 25th, 2011 at 18:38
    Reply | Quote | #2

    yes

  3. Sondar
    March 25th, 2011 at 18:50
    Reply | Quote | #3

    Oh yay, another item to clutter up my notification area. Hope they remove that. Aside from that, all looks pretty cool :)

    It’ll be nice to see bugs fixed quickly instead of waiting for another major version.

  4. Oshus
    March 25th, 2011 at 20:26
    Reply | Quote | #4

    Great! I’ll volunteer for the 8.1 Mac-beta ;)

  5. Zach
    March 25th, 2011 at 22:10
    Reply | Quote | #6

    Can those ads on start up be disabled?

    I like a few of the changes they made to the room editor, to be honest it still feels really weak and sort of hashed together at the last second.

    • Philip Gamble
      March 25th, 2011 at 22:32
      Quote | #7

      Presume by “ads on start up” you are referring to the Prison Ball banner? That is part of the “Game Maker News” screen which can be switched off in the preferences as it can now.

      The changes are definite usability improvements.

  6. Andy
    March 26th, 2011 at 16:24
    Reply | Quote | #8

    The switch to [Ctrl]+[Right] to delete an object is going to get me every time for a long time. :P – Anyhow I am very happy Game Maker 8.1 is nearing!

    • Andrew McCluskey
      March 27th, 2011 at 02:05
      Quote | #9

      Don’t worry, once you’re used to the Ctrl+Right to delete objects it’s very intuitive. Ctrl+LeftClick = drag-creating objects, Ctrl+Right = drag-deleting – it matches the functions together more :)

  7. Charlie McShane
    March 27th, 2011 at 00:52
    Reply | Quote | #10

    I’d love to see what possible changes are made in the engines I have built through GML. If Beta-Testing is ever open. I will be interested in participating.

    Thanks For Reading
    Charlie McShane

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